FRANCE IS ALL AROUND ME…

Film travelling around Europe continues with a trip to France this year. ZLÍN FILM FESTIVAL brings for the audience more than 40 archive and latest films. Days of French Cinema section consists of 5 minisections - French childhood, French Animation, Children's Literature in Film, Child in the Classic Films and Affaire de Coeur. In addition, French films will also compete for festival prizes in the international competitions of films for youth, European First Films, short animated films for children and student films.

Every year, French films for children and youth form an inevitable part of Zlín Film Festival and they became winners of the main festival awards many times. The festival dramaturgy has decided not to include those films into this year´s selection (apart from a few exceptions). Festival dramaturgy cooperated with Mr. David Čeněk, a Czech film expert on French Cinema. 

French childhood
The dramaturgy did not put an emphasis on chronological selection of this minisection, but on exceptional or revolutionary works dealing with a different views of childhood - the genius director, screenwriter and comedian Jacques Tati offers a form of slapstick comedy in the film My Uncle (Mon Oncle, 1958), Michel Deville breathes his non-dialogue The Little Bunch (La petite bande, 1983) a little magic and visual poems are called the classic works of Albert Lamorisse White Mane (Crin-Blanc, 1953) and The Red Balloon (Le Ballon rouge, 1956). The current children's and youth production in France will be represented by films such as The New Kid (Le Nouveau, 2014) and Microbe and Gasoline (Microbe et Gasoil, 2015). 

Children´s literature in film
In French cinema not very frequent genre film fairy tale is represented in Zlín showcase by two jewels - The Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bête, 1946) and Donkey Skin (Peau d'âne, 1970) with Jean Marais in the main roles of both films. The latest adaptation of the classic work The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince, 2015), archive black and white The War of the Buttons (La Guerre des boutons, 1962) or the first film adaptation of the comic book Asterix the Gaul (Astérix le Gaulois, 1967) are examples of both critically acclaimed and popular with audience iconic film versions of children's literature, which mustn´t miss in the Zlín Days of French Cinema. 

French animation
Festival offers variety of the classic French animation - Paul Grimault (The King and Mister Bird, 1979), Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville, 2003), Michel Ocelot (Tales of the Night, 2011) – and contemporary examples of feature animation such as Ernest & Celestine (Ernest et Célestine, 2012) and Phantom Boy (2015). 

Child in the Classic Films
This minisection is about a chronological overview of some of the canonical works of French cinema, where a child is a key hero. They serve as a metaphor or they are used for social reflection. The Zlín showcase revives memories of the timeless works such as Faces of Children (Visages d'enfants, 1926) by Jacques Feydeer, Redhead (Poil de Carrot, 1932) by Julien Duvivier, The 400 Blows (Les Quatre cents coup, 1959) by Francois Truffaut or Zazie in the metro (Zazie dans le metro, 1960) by Louis Malle.

Affaire de Coeur
Some viewers will have the first opportunity to see the French film stars on the silver screen and in the original version. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Pierre Richard, Anna Gigardot, Jean Reno, Alain Delon and others in their classic films are cinematic bonus in this comprehensive section. This section was made together with the public, who voted in a poll and chose their favourites. 

The French touch will be part of this year's supporting program as well. People can enjoy a concert of a French chanson singer Chantal Poullain, rich cultural program at the Festival event Soir - Vive La France! or French Alley with selling the French gourment specialties.

Festival guests will have the opportunity to meet plenty of French film professionals who will be part of the delegations, juries and various allied festivals.